Therapeutic tables and beds are typically adjustable to move the patient or client to the desired configuration for the particular treatment and the desired height to enable therapists of different sizes to work effectively and comfortably. There are many different modes of adjusting position on these tables and beds including those controlled by a hand-held unit, by a hand activated panel, or by foot to enable the hands to remain free. When foot power is used, typically a foot pedal or buttons on a foot pad at the base of a therapeutic table is pushed by foot to activate an actuator which raises or lowers or otherwise changes the position of the table.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,554 describes the use of foot pedals for a patient treatment table having a first raised horizontal position for treatment and a second position closer to the vertical for mounting and dismounting. Foot pedals activate the electric motor to move the table.
There are also many patents which describe the use of safety systems for preventing patients from being crushed in the table structure when moving the table (as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,724,554 and 4,534,077) or for alerting caregivers that a patient is leaving the bed or is close to the edge and about to fall out (as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,961,201; 4,539,560; and 5,075,523).
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,554, a safety system is included in which a switch mat is positioned on the floor surface and as the footboard or end portion of the table structure approaches the switch mat, if a person or object is pinched in between, pressure is exerted on the switch mat and this either de-energizes the electric motor and/or deactivates the control valves and stops further downward travel of the table structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,077 describes a hospital bed warning system which includes an elongate detection device such as an air-tight, flexible tube or a ribbon switch mounted to one of the frames so that a person wedged between the frames will contact it prior to incurring serious injury. The detection device is connected to a switch which deactivates the bed raising/lowering motor.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,560 the bed departure detection device includes tape switch detectors in fixed positions in the seat and thigh sections of the mattress supporting structure of an articulated hospital bed.
Ribbon or tape switches are also used in U.S. Pat. No. 6,452,123 on a foot pedal for controlling a hand piece for the control of irrigation, aspiration in connection with phacoemulsification of natural lenses.
What is needed is an improved means to adjust the position of a therapeutic table that is unobtrusive, accessible from any position around the table and very easy and comfortable to use.
Although ribbon switches are used on therapeutic tables or beds to indicate if a patient is being caught in the table or if a patient is leaving the bed; and have been used on a foot pedal to activate a hand held medical device; and although foot pedals and foot activated buttons have been used to adjust the height of a therapeutic table or bed; a ribbon switch has never been contemplated for use to activate the movement of a therapeutic table or bed into a desired position.